Limited edition boxed set: ideas and brainstorming
AndreaColombo
Member Posts: 5,525
This is a thread where to post your ideas for the limited edition boxed set. What would you like it to include? How should it be?
I'll start with a few ideas of mine:
- Big cardboard box. Having a physical copy of the game is a great thing, but it's not enough. That DVD-box in which ToB came is far from special or satisfying. Give us the good old feeling of purchasing a game in '90s, with the big cardboard box as with the first Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast! I still own the originals and they are so good.
- Cloth map. Trent has already been investigating the inclusion of a high quality print on fabric of the game's world map. That's awesome. Nothing better than a brand new, updated map by Nat Jones printed on cloth. The paper map I own, which was included (if memory serves) in TotSC, also had a close-up map of the city of Baldur's Gate behind it. It would be cool if the same could be done for BG:EE: have Nat draw Baldur's Gate his style and print it on the back of the world's map.
- Soundtrack CD. With Sam Hulik composing new tracks for the new contents, BG:EE should definitely come with a new and updated soundtrack CD. And while we're at it, please master it to audiophile standards! I have no idea how the mastering was on the original soundtrack CD as I do not own it, but please make it dynamic in the Loudness War's face! This is your chance to turn every Baldur's Gate fan into a full-blown, picky and grouchy audiophile ;-)
- BG lead statuettes. When the CE of Baldur's Gate II was released, it included a set of collectible cards. That's nice and all, but with there being no BG-themed playing card game in which to use them, they were pretty useless. The kind of bonus you look at once, then put away forever. I suggest including miniatures in the CE of BG:EE. One statuette per box, depicting one of the joinable NPCs or Sarevok. It would be randomized, so that people who bought more than a box could have different statuettes. They should be made of lead, detailed and colored, slightly bigger than the average Citadel or Ral Partha miniature.
- Signed concept art print. Another nice feature could be a high quality concept art print by Nat Jones (like those of Candlekeep and the Friendly Arm Inn that can be seen on baldursgate.com) hand-signed by the BG:EE crew. One print per box, randomized.
Other ideas?
I'll start with a few ideas of mine:
- Big cardboard box. Having a physical copy of the game is a great thing, but it's not enough. That DVD-box in which ToB came is far from special or satisfying. Give us the good old feeling of purchasing a game in '90s, with the big cardboard box as with the first Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast! I still own the originals and they are so good.
- Cloth map. Trent has already been investigating the inclusion of a high quality print on fabric of the game's world map. That's awesome. Nothing better than a brand new, updated map by Nat Jones printed on cloth. The paper map I own, which was included (if memory serves) in TotSC, also had a close-up map of the city of Baldur's Gate behind it. It would be cool if the same could be done for BG:EE: have Nat draw Baldur's Gate his style and print it on the back of the world's map.
- Soundtrack CD. With Sam Hulik composing new tracks for the new contents, BG:EE should definitely come with a new and updated soundtrack CD. And while we're at it, please master it to audiophile standards! I have no idea how the mastering was on the original soundtrack CD as I do not own it, but please make it dynamic in the Loudness War's face! This is your chance to turn every Baldur's Gate fan into a full-blown, picky and grouchy audiophile ;-)
- BG lead statuettes. When the CE of Baldur's Gate II was released, it included a set of collectible cards. That's nice and all, but with there being no BG-themed playing card game in which to use them, they were pretty useless. The kind of bonus you look at once, then put away forever. I suggest including miniatures in the CE of BG:EE. One statuette per box, depicting one of the joinable NPCs or Sarevok. It would be randomized, so that people who bought more than a box could have different statuettes. They should be made of lead, detailed and colored, slightly bigger than the average Citadel or Ral Partha miniature.
- Signed concept art print. Another nice feature could be a high quality concept art print by Nat Jones (like those of Candlekeep and the Friendly Arm Inn that can be seen on baldursgate.com) hand-signed by the BG:EE crew. One print per box, randomized.
Other ideas?
45
Comments
Other than that; a Sarevok LEGO minifig, although I might have mentioned it before...
I tried making one myself but you can't hammer sheet steel like that. At my level domes are hard enough.
Failing that I would love a minature one, a little amulet of the Baldur's Gate Bhaal skull on the round disc with teardrops. That would be the most epic thing to ever have ever. About 4" diameter, so it's like a big amulet to wear on your mighty adventures slaying.
Also the soundtrack MUST INCLUDE EVERY SINGLE SONG from Baldur's Gate + TOTSC + Brand new songs.
About the minature lead figures. I don't think it should be randomized, that's not fun at all. I don't want to have to buy several copies to get all the statues. I vote every box has one single lead statue of Sarevok, about 6" high and fully detailed. There's not much reason in having statues of all the random NPC party members, the main characters are Gorion, Sarevok, Imeon and Nexlit.
As I have already suggested earlier I would vote for the USB-stick version of the game instead of CD\ DVD
Reasons:
- A lot of modern notebooks do not have CD(DVD)-drive at all. This is extinct device.
- USB-stick is more convenient and less susceptible to damage
- USB flash (I hope it will be metal) can be customized by embedding\engraving BG skull logo onto it.
What about both? I'm still kind of attached to the physical device (a single DVD being better than multiple CDs for the sake of convenience).
About the DVD though, the special edition shouldn't have one of those black & white printed labels on them. It should be one of those fancy coloured sparkly ones.
The more stuff the better
Someone mentioned they got a pewter ring in the NWN2 CE, that'd be cool. Something with Bhaal's symbol on it that could be displayed or worn would be a nice addition.
But of course, the soundtracks, any art they have available, maps and such.
That was me, I got the ring. I'd still rather have Bhaal's symbol as a big amulet if we're getting jewellery here. The problem with rings is not everybody's finger is the same size. The ring I got is too big for me. Plus I'm a man so rings aren't really my thing. I'd still wear it.
Ah, yes, that is the difficulty with worn commemorative trinkets. Perhaps sticking with a strictly display-only ring or amulet then.
If you want pictures I can take them but I'm tired so this'll be all you get for now. I apologize for the dude's hairy finger, best picture I could get from internets. Plus his looks rough and the blue paint is chipping off, not sure why though.
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/200/516340626_dc94741946_z.jpg
There were three releases. A collector's edition in America, then Lawful Good and Chaotic Evil editions elsewhere. The American version came with both rings, the one in the picture is the LG ring (blue NWN eye on the front and Lawful Good on the back). My ring has a red NWN eye and Chaotic Evil written on the side.
We need a soundtrack. All songs, old and new.
We need actual physical CDs (or a dvd) that has its own special cd or dvd case.
We need it all to be in a big cardboard box, retro style yo.
We need one extra cool BG specific thing. Some BG minis (unfeasible), set of BG character cards (with their new stats/kits/portraits/biography), a making of BGEE DVD (with behind the scenes stuff), a voucher to be redeemed at a local pet store for One Miniature Giant Space Hamster, or something like that. Okay, maybe not a hamster pet, but how about a plush Boo?
We could reasonably want some bonus in game content (that of course will be available to everyone via mod within 24 hours of release like the BG2 merchants). An item shop, some extra portraits, something like that.
http://www.insomniacmania.com/sites/default/files/news/1419/resize_1.jpg
Thought that would be cool, or a 6 inch figure of him standing with his hands resting on his sword. Sorta like this. http://www.wallpaperpimper.com/wallpaper/Art_&_3D/Fantasy/Frank-Frazetta-Death-Dealer-02-1-1024x768.jpg
I also liked the idea of a art work piece, preferably signed. That would be really special if only 500 copies are made or whatever.
I am not much of a fan of the USB... I would like perhaps a single Gold color disc with some nice cover art, like the BG gold edition.
Bhaal Medallion would be sweet.
Ideally, whatever bling comes in this box, I would like it to both capture the spirit of the BG games plus be something unique and not in the other boxed editions.
Any computer that has a DVD drive also has at least one USB port, and the USB port is going to be faster. A USB stick can be more easily customized, doesn't require the creation of a flimsy (read: easily breakable) jewel case, and is more likely to outlast the computer on which the game is installed. You can also fit more data (a LOT more data) on a USB stick than on a DVD, meaning that it could have things like digital art books, video and audio commentary, and plenty of other crunchy features that wouldn't fit on a DVD.
I'm a fan of almost everything else that's been said. Cloth map would be preferable, although a poster-sized poster would work fine as well. A cardboard box is much less likely to last a long time than a tin one, meaning that it's a better place to put your artbook/manual/figurine/USB stick when they're not in use.
Risk of Data Loss: There's always loss of data (EDIT: RISK of loss of data; nothing is a guarantee.), whether it's a DVD, Blu-Ray, SSD (Flash drive), or floppy disk. In the case of the SSD, however, that risk is directly associated with how many times data is written to the drive. It won't get scratched or damaged, and if you leave a flash drive sitting in a drawer for five years, it should be in more or less the same condition as when you put it there, if you don't use it on a regular basis. I'm doing some research right now to find out a little more about whether it's specifically writing to the disk, or if running an installation from the drive would also increase that risk of data loss, but my guess would be that there is significantly less risk from reading the drive than from writing to it.
Accidental Data Loss: That is, situations where you accidentally reformat the drive - if the developer designs it correctly, this isn't an issue. It's a simple matter of "locking" the information on the drive so that it can't be overwritten or erased.
Cost: That's the kicker, isn't it? A blank DVD, according to everything I've read, costs roughly $0.25 per disk, and holds about 5GB of data. That's prior to customization, adding labels, and what-not. A Flash Drive of comparable size costs about $5. And, really, that's where the comparison ends.
Why? Because DVDs have a very limited data storage capacity. Anything bigger than 4.7GB requires a double-sided DVD, multiple disks, or a Blu-Ray (which means every consumer needs to have a blu-ray drive on their computer). Flash drives, meanwhile, have data storage capacities ranging from 128MB all the way up to 32GB - and on a price-per-unit scale, even a fully customized 16GB drive costs only $12.15 each for an order of 50 (and if you order 2500 or more, it's less than $8).
So, it's quite a bit more expensive, as you can clearly see. The cost would naturally be less or more depending on the quality of the drive's customization; a drive that's shaped like Sarevok, for example, and made out of pewter, would probably cost more than a simple drive with a black case that says in gold lettering,
"The lord of murder shall perish,
But in his death he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny.
Chaos will be sown in their passage.
So sayeth the wise Alaundo."
I think it would be worth it. Installation takes a lot less time with a flash drive than with a DVD simply because of the nature of SSD versus optical data storage. The usb stick is much more durable and should last a lot longer, and it would be a lot easier to keep track of on your desk than a loose disk.
I think a small statue of Sarevok is the best idea yet. I'm not interested in having statues of all the characters, it makes it less special. Hell yeah. All they need is 4" diameter rubber mould, they can send that off to a metalsmith's company and get back lots of medallions.
Of course the eyes would have to be red.
An artbook with original art + new art from Nat Jones.
NPC minis maybe, since they don't have to be edition-specific; but also remember that Wizards is currently working on 5e (D&DNext), so the 4e stats would be only temporarily useful.
The busts are awesome, but I don't really like this idea. Mainly because I don't think I'd use it somewhere, and it's not a small thing, so the CE's box would be much larger only because of this.
The miniatures, or figurines, would be cool thing to have. But I wouldn't make them only temporarily useful. Miniatures for D&D 4e or 5e could be good separate product for BG store, or something like that.
The Bhaal medallion would be sweet. Also, artbook, complete soundtrack and map are a must. But, noone's questioning that, right?
And what about a poster? Not sure about what would be on the poster, though. Ideas?